Tag Archives: results

Organizational success and effective functioning both depend not only on the excellence with which the team’s individuals perform their duties, but, equally importantly, upon the principles applied in organizing the operation.

These are two different issues: a) effective function and, b) business success and prosperity.

At first glance, executives, seeing these two issues are often related, assume they are one and the same or otherwise depend on each other. Not so. One can have effective function without business success and prosperity, and visa versa.

Thus the following maxim: to ensure the continuing success and prosperity of any business undertaking, it must organize and align its functions correctly so it operates most effectively and toward optimum outcomes.

The organizational structures of most American corporations violate this maxim. Their organizational structures only express a vertical communication line of control and power: their structures do not express the flow of completed actions or inputs (useful or valuable outcomes produced) that must occur and pass between the functions of the operation if an enterprise is to have continuing success.

Look at your company’s organizational chart — does it only state the reporting relationships and vertical flow of power and authority ? Does it define the product produced by each department that is valuable to the next? Does it define the flow of these subsidiary valuable products through the organization toward the accomplishment of the enterprise’s ideal circumstance of an on-going viable exchange of something of value with its public ?

If it fails to show the myriad subsidiary products flowing as a sequence from one departmental function to the next for use or fuller processing toward the completed final, valuable, exchangeable, end product or service; you are missing vast opportunities and could be headed for disaster.

Ability Consultants, Inc., uses an innovative approach to enterprise organization. Firstly, we do not just rewrite the chart; we introduce the natural law of the production cycle to management. Second, we train management on the explicit sequence of basic abilities that must be naturally followed and fulfilled by any individual or organization hoping to succeed in any endeavor or production cycle.

When an organization’s operation is properly based on this natural cycle, and all functions are aligned to pursuing its correct ideal circumstance, it will prosper. Where there are violations of this, it will have difficulty . . . and be wondering why.

Planning has gotten a bad name in corporate America. It is often very poorly done, grievously erroneous, or otherwise wasted due to existing plans not being implemented correctly when they are available.

This is true for individuals as well.

All of the spectacular failings of American blue-chip companies in recent decades can be traced to poor, or erroneous, or omitted planning. Apple Computers (when it was failing prior Steve Jobs’s return), IBM’s massive contraction in the mid–1980’s–early 1990’s, Woolworth’s, defunct major airlines, Xerox’s missteps and failure to capitalize on its inventions in computing, et al.

Conventional wisdom gives its reasons for these failures, but on close inspection these reasons can be seen as only statements of the conditions of the market place — not the real why of the failures.

The real why is poor, or erroneous, or omitted planning.

Proper planning is an exact sequence; an exact technology — and it is not taught in Business School, nor in corporate America. Indeed they do not have this technology — which explains why the process is so poorly done.

The technology of planning comes from research into the actions of human ability and its natural cycle in the producing of ideal scenarios or circumstances; and it contains essential, key ingredients, all derived from the principles of Knowledgism™.

First is a proper perception of the environment into which the intended plan is to apply, followed by an evaluation of the perceptions and data gathered: the technology, the market and environmental forces, and the factors that pertain and apply currently as well as those which are changing. (Note this is two actions: perception and data gathering, and then the evaluation and analysis of the gathered data — see our sheet on Data Analysis.) Next is the evaluation and determining of importance and priorities. Next is the stating or updating of the plan’s ideal scenario or circumstance that is to be its outcome. And finally, the correct sequencing of actions to be taken, outcomes to be produced, and corrective procedures to be employed.

A correctly formulated corporate plan of on-going operation that delineates specific duties, responsibilities, knowledges required, and outcomes to be produced that are all aligned to the correct ideal end result or circumstance, will, if faithfully implemented, ensure continuing success.

One could take each of the company failures above and, analyzing that failure against the above formula, correctly discern the exact errors made that caused the failure.

Knowing the correct why of any failure, one can often rescue any company.

As an example: was there omitted or erroneous perception? or incorrect or omitted evaluation of what was perceived? Did this lead to the pursuit of incorrect targets, or the failure to provide the correct product or service to the correct public? Did it cause the company to fail to provide for itself the correct resources? Each of the steps of the formula can be analyzed out in this manner.

Planning is a big subject: an important subject: an exacting subject.

Executives trained by Ability Consultants, Inc., on our proprietary Corporate Planning Technology™ get it right, and their companies prosper.